Lorenzo Bertelli, heir to the Italian luxury brand, discusses Prada’s involvement in NASA’s lunar mission. Prada has entered the space race with its latest project: designing space suits for NASA‘s Artemis III mission.
The white extravehicular mobility suit, while not particularly stylish, is a marvel of engineering. It weighs over 200 kilograms and features a gender neutral design with gray padding on the knees and elbows.
Bertelli, a former race car driver, sees space as the next frontier. He points to Prada’s investment of £1 billion ($1.27 billion) over 20 years in research and engineering for their competitive sailing team, Luna Rossa, and the crew’s Linea Rossa clothing line.
The collaboration between Prada and Axiom Space, a company aiming to build the first commercial space station, is uncharted territory. This partnership marks a bold new step for fashion houses.
This venture takes the group’s experimental nature to new heights, even as Miuccia Prada’s latest collection features futuristic elements.
Bertelli believes that the research and technical expertise gained through their work on the Artemis III mission will give Prada a competitive edge when commercial space travel becomes more accessible.
He anticipates a significant drop in prices as the industry scales up, creating new opportunities.
Matt Ondler, President of Axiom Space, adds that the partnership has created a new model for cross-industry collaboration, expanding possibilities in commercial space.
Innovation in Space Exploration
The space suit’s red stripes resemble the Linea Rossa logo of the sailors and have been a constant presence in NASA space suits since Apollo 13.
Prada’s expertise in high-performance materials contributed to the development of the suit’s outer layer. The inner layer features thermoregulation, a built-in nutrition system, biometric monitoring, and a CO2 filtration system.
The boots, designed to withstand extreme temperatures, were the most challenging part of the suit to develop. Prada aims to participate in developing the inner layer of space suits, leveraging its sailboat engineering experience.
In addition, Bertelli expresses pride in the company’s ability to push boundaries and sees potential for future space tourism opportunities.
As NASA prepares to explore the Moon’s South Pole craters, astronauts will be equipped with the Axiom-Prada suits. They will be able to perform eight-hour spacewalks during their missions.
In short, these suits will protect them from extreme temperatures, ranging from freezing cold to several hundred degrees Celsius above zero.
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